THE LANDSLIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 15 November 1930, Page 5

THE LANDSLIDE

NUN’S .MARVELLOUS ESCAPE

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

LONDON, November 13

When the first landslide at 1 a.m. wrecked the Convent, one nun, Sister Blaiidin, who was sleeping on the top floor, was thrown with her bed a distance of fifty feet to the ground door, and was then buried under twenty feet of earth, rubble and timber. She made her cries heard, however, and at 5 a.m. four workmen, who had tunnelled for fiv.e hours, reached her and they found that the matress was above her, and that it had prevented her from receiving fatal injuries, though she was then onlv able to move her head.

OLD ROMANS TO BLAME. HILL HONEYCOMBED BY THEM. LONDON November 13. Further news regarding the chasm at Lyons shows that the hill where the collapse has occurred had been honeycombed by the Romans in the olden days. It contained numerous underground passages, which the recent rains had filled up, thus form'ng a lake, which sapped the entire hill. SUCCESSIVE SLIDES. LONDON November 13. The collapse of the first portion of the lull nt Lyons swept away a re-cently-erected retaining wall, fhe demolition of' which made the whole hill unstable. The third convulsion buried the emergency equipment of the Lyons Fire Brigade. The fourth convulsion destroyed a second street.

AGED AND INJURED RESCUED. LONDON November 13. During the course of the rescue work, Cardinal Mauriu, the Archbishop of Lyons, led a tireless hand of priests in the carrying of the aged and the injured from the danger zone. One of the clergy remained in a perilous position to absolve the dying. To-night the Cathedral of St. Jean, in Lyons, is filled with weeping men and women, who are praying for their loved ones, while in the red rays of the watch .lamp, glimmering in the dim knave, Cardinal Maurin passes silently' from group to group, raising his hand and blessing, and mingling his: prayers with those of the bereaved. THE FINAL AVALANCHE. LONDON November 13. Three motor ambulances conveying injured people were overwhelmed, with their drivers, when the final avalanche occurred at 4.55 a.m., and reduced the street to utter ruin. Hope has been abandoned of saving any of the earlier victims.

The wreckage cannot lie entirely cleared for months.